Abstract

Perception of auditory patterns based on an intensity difference was tested in 30 normal subjects under binaural, monaural, and dichotic listening conditions. Each auditory pattern was made up of three temporally spaced white‐noise bursts involving two elements, i.e., “Soft” (S) and “Loud” (L). Patterns included SLS, LSL, LLS, SSL, LSS, and SLL. The loud element in the patterns remained at a constant intensity throughout, with the soft elements attenuated from 5 to 20 dB in different sets of patterns. Patterns were presented at 50 dB SL. Subjects needed a 10‐dB intensity difference within a pattern in order to recognize it correctly half the time, although the just noticeable difference (jnd) for white noise is about 0.5 dB. This seems to indicate that the pattern recognition task is a higher auditory function than simple discrimination of intensity differences. An unexpected finding was a large number of complete pattern reversals or mirror images which accounted for 30%–40% of errors across listening conditions and intensity‐difference levels. Symmetrical patterns were more commonly reversed than asymmetrical patterns. It is suggested that reversals of auditory patterns may occur in a manner similar to figure and ground reversal in vision.